Animal Intelligence

CNET posted a list of its top ten animal geeks, “the non-humans who have made outstanding contributions to science”. While these aren’t necessarily intelligent animals, it’s still a cool list.

1. Ham, the Astrochimp — launched into orbit on Project Mercury.
2. Pavlov’s Dog
3. Scroedinger’s Cat — an imaginary animal used for a thought experiment.
4. Dolly the Sheep — the first successfully cloned mammal.
5. Clever Hans — the mathematical horse, who wasn’t as smart as was claimed.
6. Hansken — an elephant pickpocket.
7. K9 — Dr. Who’s robot dog.
8. Koko the Gorilla — who would have been my choice for top of this list, but then my list wouldn’t have contained K9, either.
9. Alex the Parrot — who is one smart bird. I need to write about him.
10. Hoover the Seal

The list is mostly tongue-in-cheek, but still fun.

[CNET: Top ten animal geeks]